Jake Brennan is a well-known fixture in his home town of Boston, Massachusetts, where he admits there are "some serious guitar players. Guys I can go see any night of the week and steal as much as possible from."
A self-described "Hardcore Folk" artist, Jake released an album on Yep Roc Records in 2004 with his band, the Confidence Men, to much local acclaim. He also sang in a hardcore band called Cast Iron Hike. His most recent project is the highly danceable Bodega Girls.
Jake is a self-taught guitar player who, in the past two years, has also picked up the ukulele. "I really love it," he says of his latest musical muse. "The uke leads me down creative roads I didn't know were on the map."
Always pushing the boundaries of his creativity, Jake did a 2-week stint for Boston.com last year called Pop Ed, where he wrote an original song based on the news - and performed it - every day online. Each song was also played on WBOS. Topics included Anna Nicole Smith, Parker Posey, proms, the weather and (naturally), the Red Sox.
Jake plays an Athena Gazelle in open tuning and calls it "very bad ass. The Luna isn't afraid of the big Keith Richards riffs," he says.
Not surprisingly, his musical influences are diverse and include Quincy Jones era Michael Jackson, Conway Twitty and Johnny Thunders. He also enjoys beer league baseball, reading historical fiction, producing music videos and traveling.
The one thing Jake says he has had to sacrifice for his music is his patience, although he might recover that if there were a better musician's union. "We need something akin to what the film industry has in place," he says. "Something that values musicians higher than they currently are. If someone hooks that up I'll come play."
In the meantime, you can hear Jake solo or with The Bodga Girls which, he says, "sounds like sex. Look for a population boon."
